Cornelius & Anthony The Gent Gordo

The last time I was writing about Cornelius & Anthony, it was 2019 and it was still not confirmed whether the brand was still alive.

A year earlier, S&M Brands, Inc., the cigarette company that was owned by the same family, was sold to an undisclosed buyer and subsequently closed down. The Bailey family, which owned S&M, also owned Cornelius & Anthony, and Golden Leaf Tobacco Co., Inc. While the details of the S&M deal were private, it was said that the Bailey family retained both the cigar brand and Golden Leaf, a tobacco leaf company.

Years later, it seems safe to say that the sale of S&M also marked the end of Cornelius & Anthony.

In 2018, Cornelius & Anthony showed off two new lines at the annual IPCPR Convention & Trade Show, the event now known by the PCA acronym. One was The Mistress, and the other was The Gent, both made at the La Zona Cigar Factory in Nicaragua.

The Mistress, which got way more attention at the time, was touted for being full-bodied, while The Gent was more medium-bodied. Both were offered in the same four vitolas, though The Mistress used round cigars, while The Gent was box-pressed.

I first reviewed The Gent Gordo in September 2018 and thoroughly enjoyed it:

Over the course of the year, I will smoke hundreds of different cigars. While many of them are great cigars, it’s not every year that I find myself smoking a cigar that seems magical. As with most reviews, I had zero expectations of what would happen, but as with something like the original Las Calaveras, I was completely blindsided with just how good this was going to be. The Gent is simply fantastic. It’s a seamless transition of rich and balanced flavors that I rarely ever experience and it does it for over three hours with no reprieve. This is one of the best cigars I’ve smoked not just of this year, but of many of the years preceding it.

I was not alone; the cigar went on to finish tied for fourth on our Top 25 of 2018.

A year later, I revisited The Gent and didn’t find it to be as good:

I smoked a few more of The Gent Gordo in the latter part of 2018 and found them to be as enjoyable as the three cigars I reviewed. This was not. It’s probably not a bad cigar, but this particular example was flawed in a number of places. The flavor—particularly in the second third—was somewhat dull, the balance left a lot to be desired from start to finish and the construction was problematic enough that even if I wasn’t reviewing the cigar, I’d be very annoyed. While the Gent Gordo was probably the most pleasant surprise of the cigars I smoked in 2018, it is probably the leader in the clubhouse for the most disappointing cigar I’ve smoked in 2019.

As I was searching through a humidor full of cigars that could serve as redux review candidates, I spotted The Gent and remembered that it was a cigar that I once enjoyed.

• Cigar Reviewed: Cornelius & Anthony The Gent Gordo
• Country of Origin: Nicaragua
• Factory: La Zona Cigar Factory
• Wrapper: Ecuador
• Binder: U.S.A.
• Filler: Honduras & Nicaragua
• Length: 6 Inches
• Ring Gauge: 60
• Shape: Pressed
• MSRP: $9.75 (Boxes of 20, $195)
• Release Date: July 2018
• Number of Cigars Released: Regular Production
• Number of Cigars Smoked For Review: 1

Hey, it’s another redux review, which means it’s time for my monthly reminder: cellophane is not an accurate indicator of age. This cigar is nearly a decade old, and despite that, there’s only a mild amount of yellow or brown on the plastic. Once removed, the cigar itself looks like it could pass for a recent PCA 2026 release. If I had to guess, this wrapper is from Ecuador, a fairly bright and red version of what I imagine is some sort of Cuban-seed. It’s a well-rolled example, though there’s an above-average amount of both veins and bumps. The aroma is medium-full with lots of bright leather and touches of ammonia, birdseed and cocoa. The foot smells similar but a lot sweeter due to milk chocolate and floral flavors, followed closely by some leather. That’s a preview for the cold draw, which has a lifelike chocolate malt flavor. There’s also some sour wood and more isolated creaminess, but those play second fiddle to the malt.

While it might be able to pass for a new release based on looks, the first puff of the Cornelius & Anthony The Gent Gordo would suggest that this is not a new cigar at all. The flavor is medium-plus with a mixture of dry woods, creaminess, plain crackers and some chocolate. The flavors are very developed, meaning plenty of spatial separation and no rough edges. Unfortunately, as the cigar gets going, I wish there were an edge or two. It settles into a very mature profile of dry popcorn, creaminess, aged tobacco and different earth sensations with distant secondary flavors of sharp lemon and wood. During the finish, the main mixture moves more and more into the bready section of the flavor wheel, by the end of the first third, it’s tasting like a sour pita bread. Retrohales really show off the different earth sensations—dry earth, pencil lead, a taste that reminds me of the smell of wet mud, clay—along with minor amounts of white pepper. That pepper carries the transition, where some sourness and a more generic earth emerge. Flavor is medium-full, body is medium and strength is mild-medium. Throughout much of the first third, I’m not getting the type of feedback during a puff that gives me confidence in the combustion. The cigar never goes out, but I expect to have some sort of relationship between the amount of force I take when drawing on the cigar and the smoke that it produces, when that doesn’t happen, it causes concern. Eventually, touch-ups are needed for early signs of tunneling.

Right around the halfway mark, I find myself really paying attention to consecutive puffs, trying to figure out what’s going on. While the Cornelius & Anthony The Gent Gordo is nearing the full mark, it is losing flavor notes. There’s still an array of earthiness, now joined by more prominent players like nuttiness and white pepper, but with each puff, a very generic tobacco flavor is taking over the cigar. We try to avoid using “tobacco” as a tasting note in a cigar review, but it’s as applicable here as any cigar I’ve reviewed this year. There’s plenty of flavor, it’s just mostly tobacco flavor. That’s especially true during the finish, which only has some creaminess as a contrast. Retrohaling provides a nice respite with pencil lead, wheat bread, leather and earth, creating a more dynamic mixture; towards the end of the section, there’s even some vinegar undertones. After retrohaling, the finish has a mild sweetness contrasted by the dry pencil lead. Flavor is full, body is medium-plus and strength is medium-plus, though building. As the cigar gets to its final two inches, the tobacco flavor is doing its best to drown everything else out. Most of the time, I find that happens because a singular flavor is so much more intense or stronger than the other flavors, but with The Gent, it’s more of a space thing. There’s just so little room for any of the flavors to emerge. Saltiness, white pepper and black pepper provide some accents, but it’s not until the finish that I feel like any other flavor can truly establish itself. There, earthiness and creaminess make cases for secondary flavors, but I’m tasting more and more tobacco. Retrohales, previously largely immune to the tobacco flavor’s dominance, still have some other flavors like leather, black pepper and hints of cured meats, but as the cigar nears the end, it’s just tasting like tobacco. Flavor is full, body is medium-plus and strength is probably just medium-plus but thanks to the size of the cigar, feels more like medium-full. While it might read as if “tastes like tobacco” is the main problem, that is totally not the case. Throughout the second half of the cigar, touch-ups are needed at an increasing frequency. By the end of the cigar, I can’t go more than 10 minutes without reaching for my lighter to deal with waning combustion. After three hours, I put down what is almost assuredly the last The Gent I’ll ever smoke in my life.

Cornelius & Anthony
Cornelius & Anthony The Gent
Cornelius & Anthony The Gent Gordo
Gordo
La Zona Cigar Factory
Nicaragua